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Rich-looking Durapalm is an environmentally friendly flooring product that comes from plantation-grown palm trees.
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By Dan McLeister
Environmentally conscious builders and remodelers looking for renewable resources can now add flooring made from coconut palm trees to their list of acceptable materials—a green flooring option made possible by a product called Durapalm (www.durapalm.com), made from plantation-grown palm trees that no longer produce coconuts.
With more than 150 species growing in countries from Southeast Asia to Africa and Central America, palm trees hold great potential for sustainable export lumber products, according to Sven Eberlein, marketing director for the San Francisco-based Smith & Fong Co., which works with a coconut palm tree found abundantly in Asia. These trees produce nuts for more than 100 years, but as palms get taller with age, nutrients traveling from the base of the tree cannot reach the nuts efficiently. That diminishes production. So the taller palms are eventually removed and replaced with younger, better producers.
The felled timber byproduct has had no developed secondary market and frequently goes unused, Sven says. His company has been the only manufacturer providing the product for flooring in the United States.
Coconut palm trees used for Durapalm grow to approximately 12 inches in diameter, but can reach 100 feet or more in height. Unlike other woods, coconut palm is darker and harder at the perimeter and is soft and light in color at its core. Smith & Fong cuts the logs in a special process, then slices and kiln dries the material before the lamination process begins. Non-toxic adhesives are used in the lamination process to maintain the environmental value of the end product, according to Sven.
Durapalm sells for a retail price of $8.99 a square foot. At that price, the product is used mostly in more expensive remodeling projects and in custom homes, particularly in California and Florida. With a dark exotic feel, the product is usually used in the living room of homes.
Some in the green building sector think that Durapalm could provide an interesting model for other possible environmentally friendly products which have not yet been developed. "Durapalm," says Alex Wilson, executive editor of Environmental Building News and Building Green (www.buildinggreen.com), "could almost be considered an agricultural waste product. It is a great example of a company recognizing an opportunity."
Cork and Bamboo
Cork flooring is a similar renewable product that has grown in popularity over the last few years, but it still accounts for less than 2 percent of the flooring market. Cork is categorized as rapidly renewable since it consists of the bark of a particular type of oak tree that is harvested about every nine or 10 year in large slabs. Despite this apparently brutal treatment, the trees thrive for generations.
Another rapidly renewable flooring product, bamboo isn't even a wood. Botanically, it's a grass. However, it is very hard, strong and dimensionally stable.
"Environmentally, it's hard to argue with a wood substitute that matures in three years, regenerates without need for replanting and requires minimal fertilization or pesticides," says Alex. "In fact, the larger species of bamboo have been used in construction for thousands of years in Asia."
On the popularity scale, bamboo is selected a bit more often than cork, because bamboo is perceived to be more durable. But cork is equally durable if given proper care, according to Pete Nichols, marketing manager for Sustainable Flooring (www.sustainableflooring.com). His company provides both cork and bamboo products to new home builders and remodelers. Remodelers account for about 60 percent of sales for these products, Pete says, because remodelers are more prone to research different materials and educate clients about the value of new and different products.
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